Jennifer Jancuska is a director, choreographer, and conceiver of theatrical work whose process is deeply collaborative and investigative, bringing movement into dialogue with text, music, and design at the earliest stages of creation.
Jancuska is the Artistic Director of BringAbout Development, recipient of the 2026 Baryshnikov Arts Residency, the 2024–25 Japan–U.S. Creative Fellowship, the 2024 Jerome Robbins “Stories That Move” Residency, the 2024 CUNY Dance Initiative Fellowship, and was named to the 2024 Women to Watch on Broadway list by The Broadway Women’s Fund. Her work has been presented by The Old Globe, Berkeley Rep, Ars Nova, Little Island, Goodspeed, Madison Square Garden, among others. She is also the founder of BC Beat, recognized by The New York Times as “the place to reimagine dance in musical theatre.”
Jancuska honed her creative culture, leadership, and long-form developmental rigor over seven years as Resident Choreographer of Hamilton on Broadway. She is a Cornell University graduate and a member of SDC who has taught and created work in Japan, Brazil, France, China, the UK, and the USA.
Mieko Kawakami, born in Osaka, Japan, is an internationally best-selling novelist whose work has been translated into over twenty languages and published worldwide. Celebrated as one of Japan’s most influential and groundbreaking literary voices, her writing is renowned for its poetic qualities and profound insights into the female body, ethical questions, and the complexities of modern society. Her ability to challenge societal norms, especially those surrounding womanhood and identity, has made her a beacon of feminist literature globally.
Kawakami’s internationally available works include the novel Breasts and Eggs (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of TIME’s Best Books of 2020), the novel Heaven, and All the Lovers in the Night, among others. Breasts and Eggs and Heaven have brought her especially wide recognition in English translation and remain key entry points for readers discovering her work. Her novel Sisters in Yellow will be released in English in spring 2026, with publication in the United States.
Recognized by numerous prestigious awards in Japan, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize, Kawakami is a writer who not only disrupts and redefines literary traditions but also empowers a new generation of writers and thinkers.
She currently lives in Tokyo.
Fumi Tanakadate is a New York–based musician, composer, and educator whose work bridges Japanese traditional music and Western classical traditions. A classically trained pianist, she also specializes in Japanese taiko drums and bamboo flutes (shinobue and nohkan), bringing these instruments into contemporary performance, composition, and collaborative settings.
Tanakadate is drawn toward storytelling through sound and interdisciplinary collaboration, using harmony, rhythm, and timbre to evoke character, atmosphere, and emotional narrative. Her artistic practice explores new contexts for Japanese instruments, positioning them as flexible, expressive voices within global contemporary music rather than genre-bound traditions.
She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Joe’s Pub, BAM, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and international festivals and conventions. An active collaborator with theater artists, dancers, and composers, Tanakadate is also a dedicated educator, currently teaching at Wesleyan University and serving as a primary instructor at Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center.
